State Government reconsiders late night liquor licence freeze as music venues scrap NYE gigs

The State Government says it is considering changes to its freeze on late night liquor licences after several inner city music venues were forced to can New Year's Eve gigs.

The Tote, the Bendigo and Yah Yah's hotels in Collingwood are just some of the venues that have been forced to either cancel or bring forward their gigs planned for this evening.

They all applied for one-off 3:00am licences because New Year's Eve fell on a Tuesday this year; but their applications were rejected.

Earlier this year the government extended its ban on new late night liquor licences in inner city municipalities in response to evidence "between alcohol-related harm and licensed premises trading after 1am".

Most restaurant and cafes are exempt from the freeze.

The co-owner of the Tote and Yah Yah's, Jon Perring, says New Year's Eve must be an exception to the rule.

"We had to cancel our gigs there's no way we could through with it, we would have lost money on it," Mr Perring said.

"If you already can trade on a weekend to a specific hour you should, you should be able to do it on New Year's Eve that would make sense."

Mr Perring says making it unviable for venues to open on New Year's Eve will lead to unauthorised, uncontrolled parties.

"You would think from a policy perspective the government would be wanting people to go out that does have crowd controllers and staff have got a responsible serving of alcohol accreditation," he said.

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